Wolf Kahn: More Vibrant Than Ever

Wolf Kahn has been awarded the 2017 U.S. State Department’s International Medal of Arts. Kahn’s work has been part of the State Department’s Art in Embassies program, which loans work to diplomatic bureaus around the world.

 

At age 90, Kahn says that he is painting now more than ever before. He divides his time between his studio in New York and his hillside farm in Brattleboro, Vermont, which he and his wife, the painter Emily Mason, have owned since 1968.

 

More Vibrant Than Ever

Many of Kahn’s early paintings were created in shades of gray and white. Kahn says that it was a trip to New England that changed the way he painted. “… one summer we went to Maine,” he said, in an interview with New Hampshire Public Radio, “and we lived on the southwest harbor of Deer Isle. In the evening I looked right into the sunset, down this cove, into a sunset. And the idea of painting that in all gray would have been unnatural, so I started becoming involved in color again.”

 

Kahn is a master of both oil and pastels. His use of color and style combine to make his works both uniquely abstract and realistic.

 

“As a painter, I think you shouldn’t expose the public to things they already know,” Kahn said, “almost as an obligation. You have to take them beyond where things are easily explained. I think of myself as a very conventional person, very ordinary person, but I do believe that one of the obligations of an artist is to go toward transcendence, and that seems valuable to me. That’s good enough for me to keep going.”

Wolf Kahn at Surovek Gallery

We are pleased to announce the recent acquisition of fine works by Wolf Kahn, including Evening on the Connecticut, Barn in Corner and Magenta Cloud.

 

Please contact us if you would like more information about these, or any of the other works for sale at Surovek.

 

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December 21, 2017